In the making of hollow blown articles such as containers from plastic material, it has heretofore been suggested that labels be held in the mold sections by vacuum so that when the parison is blown outwardly into conformity with the cavity, the label becomes adhered or bonded to the article. A problem that has resulted in such application of labels is that there is a tendency for the plastic material to distort and deform non-uniformly in any space between the edges of the labels or where the edges of the labels abut one another.
Accordingly, among the objects of the present invention are to provide a method and apparatus for applying a label to a plastic article while it is being formed by blow molding which will result in a uniform appearance of the article and at the same time will obviate any distortion or non-uniformity in the plastic. A further object of the invention is to provide a novel blown plastic article having a label.
In accordance with the invention, the method and apparatus of forming an article by blow molding a parison into conformity with a cavity defined by a partible mold, comprises positioning a label of flexible material on each section of the mold, each label having a width in a circumferential direction such that a portion of one axial edge of each label extends beyond the side edge of the cavity forming portions of the section of the mold and the other axial edge, moving the mold sections toward one another so that they close and define the mold cavity, deflecting said one edge of each label radially inwardly before the molds close such that as the molds close the deflected edge will overlap with the adjacent edge of the adjacent label, and blowing the parison into conformity with the cavity such that the edges of the two labels overlap and register to define a continuous label about the article.